If you are a New York Yankees fan, and especially if you thought baseball in the 1960s was the “Golden Era” for professional baseball, you will want to buy the new book written by William J. Ryczek, published by McFarland, titled, “The Yankees In The Early 1960s.”

It’s a gripping history of the New York Yankees over a decade which saw them go from the top of the American League to the (more…)

After reading the story about the University of Toledo athletic department’s barter arrangements, it occurred to me that a more comprehensive story could have been titled, “How bartering helps sports organizations survive and thrive.”

Bartering or trading for services is hardly new for our local universities, sports (more…)

The following story was written about the University of Toledo’s use of barter. I found it unusually interesting inasmuch as I attended the University for two years prior to my signing a bonus contract with the New York Yankees after my second year, back in 1960. The writer, Joe Vardon of he Toledo Blade did an exceptional job detailing all of the trades, and I would think the barter activities at the University are extremely helpful. Here’s the (more…)

Barry Bonds, soon to break Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record, is taking action after corporate advertisers have shunned him. The 43-year old player has established a licensing company to leverage his (more…)

If you have ever wondered just how difficult it is to reach the majors (professional baseball) here is (more…)

Recently in my reading about the “sports art” of Stephen Holland I was amazed to learn that the sports business industry is estimated to be $213 billion…one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in the United States.

It is far more than twice the size of the U.S. auto industry and seven times the size of the movie industry. As such its (more…)

Whatever Happened to Little League Baseball in the Inner City? examines the times in which we live and eras gone by, when Inner City parks in Chicago were filled with kids who were devoted to America’s favorite pastime, baseball. In his impassioned book, author Mark O’Neal looks at the various social, cultural, racial, and economic factors that have caused baseball to (more…)

In my first post on professional athletics, I looked at a unique experience I had with Al Downing when we were both 21-year-old’s…in short, I attempted to “think like he thought” regarding some specific questions about life and interacting in society, for a college term paper. If you read the post you know that my attempt at putting myself in his shoes was a miserable failure.

In this post we narrow our focus considerably, looking at one of the greatest players in the history of baseball. It’s interesting to see, once again, our different takes on (more…)

In this morning’s Los Angeles Times sports section Al Downing was interviewed for his thoughts on Barry Bonds’ assault of Hank Aaron’s home run record. As you may recall it was Al Downing who surrendered Hank Aaron’s 715th home run, besting the immortal Babe Ruth and the sports world’s most-heralded record. And I found Downing’s comments interesting for a couple of reasons.

First, reading comments by someone you know makes the article more interesting. We played together back in 1961 in the (more…)